POTTSVILLE - The Pottsville softball team escaped an eighth-inning jam to secure a place in Thursday's 5AAA District Tournament championship game with a 1-0 squeaker Tuesday night over Clarksville.

The win sets up an unlikely matchup of the third-seeded Lady Apaches and No. 5 seed Dover, which upset top-seeded Dardanelle in the first semifinal of the day. The final will be 6 p.m. Thursday at Pottsville City Park.

After a pitchers' battle between Pottsville's Lauren Tracy and Clarksville's Heather McCormick in which neither team could get on the scoreboard in regulation, the game was decided in the eighth and final inning when the teams start the inning with a runner on second base.

In the top of the eighth, Pottsville's Britney Nealy started off of second and was sacrificed over to third by Andrea Willingham. With one out, Whitney Harris grounded out to shortstop, but it did the job as Nealy scored to put the Lady Apaches ahead 1-0.

In the bottom half of the inning, Clarksville looked to be in good position as Meagan Moore started off on second base and Sara Jo Harvey bunted her over to third. The throw went to third to try to get Moore out, but it was late and the Lady Panthers had runners at the corners with no outs.

Harvey stole second a couple pitches later and Clarksville still had no outs. Tracy got Brooke Hurley to fly out to right field, and Moore was caught too far off the bag to tag and attempt to score. The next batter, Lacey Phillips hit the ball to third baseman Kaytie Loyd, who threw home to Brittany Overturf to get Moore for the second out of the inning. Tracy then caused Kelsey Mefford to ground out to first to end the game and send her team into the championship game.

Tracy finished the game with a three-hit shutout and struck out 10 batters, including six that were caught looking. McCormick surrendered just the one run on four hits and struck out four.

Amanda Smith led Pottsville at the plate by going 2-for-3. Harris, Loyd and Krysta Clark each had a hit.

Brooke Hurley, Tiffany Hudson and Moore had a hit each for Clarksville.

Dover 8, Dardanelle 1

The Dover Lady Pirates exploded out of the blocks Tuesday afternoon and cruised to the finals of the 5AAA District Tournament with an 8-1 victory over top-seeded Dardanelle.

Dover got five hits off of Lady Sand Lizard starter Nikki Adams and took advantage of a couple of Dardanelle fielding miscues to jump out to a 6-0 lead and let pitcher Sara McClure take care of the rest.

"We came into the tournament struggling with our bats," Dover coach Doug Gross said. "We got to the district tournament and the bats started picking up.

"(Dardanelle) is a good team and we were able to get in and get some runs early. I'm very proud of these girls."

McClure did her part by pitching a four-hitter, surrendering her only run in the bottom of the fourth when her team enjoyed a comfortable 8-0 lead.

Rebecca Morton, Bridgette Anderson, Ashley Ivey, Rebecca Heim and McClure all had hits in the first, with Anderson driving in a run and McClure adding two RBIs. Baylea Leavell also picked up an RBI on a fielder's choice in the inning.

Dover added a run each in the second and third innings to complete its scoring. In the second, Ivey scored on a passed ball after reaching earlier in the inning on a fielder's choice. In the third, Kelli Burton had walked and then scored on an RBI double by Morton, who made the third out of the inning trying to stretch the double into a triple.

Dardanelle's run came in the bottom of the fourth when Kylia Melder led off the inning with a single and then later scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of Carmen Flurry.

Both pitchers dominated the last three innings to keep the final score at 8-1.

Dover had eight runs on eight hits, while Dardanelle had one run on four.

Morton led Dover at the plate by going 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI; Bridgette Anderson went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. Ivey, Heim and McClure all finished the game with one hit each.

Melder went 2-for-3 and scored a run to lead the Lady Lizards at the plate. Heather Canerday and Sara Laughinghouse both went 1-for-3.